*** The photos on this trip were taken with a film-style camera and many were damaged by the processor during development.

Olivia (a.k.a. Sis) and I decided to take advantage of a job I had in southwestern Virginia and make a father/daughter climb in the Smokies while we were close by. So we left for my job three days early and made our climb on Thursday, November 3rd.

We chose Mt. Kephart because it was close to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg (where we were staying in my mom and dad’s motor home), because it was among the tallest peaks in the southeast, and because we could also bag Mt. Ambler in the same climb. To our surprise, mom and dad had trained a bit and decided to go with us.

In the first few yards of the trail it was evident that we would have to split up because Sis and I were keeping a far quicker pace than mom and dad. So they went along slowly and we paced ourselves a little quicker up the mountain. We kept in partial contact by radio throughout the day and later learned that they made it nearly a mile up the trail before eating lunch and going back. Pretty good, really.

Olivia and I went on past an icy patch in the trail and made the summit of Mt. Ambler (6,120 feet), then pushed on to Mt. Kephart. The Appalachian Trail, which we stayed on for most of the trip, does not actually cross the summit of Kephart. We looked around and found a point that was only a few yards away from the summit on Boulevard Trail, which junctions the Appalachian Trail, and then went on to a point called the Jump-Off. Its said to be the highest sheer drop-off in the eastern half of the United States and the views were incredible.

From here we went further down the AT to the Ice Water Springs shelter house to eat a freeze dried lunch of sweet and sour pork with rice and a side dish of elk sausage, then took the short walk down to the springs themselves before starting the trip down. We made it back about seven hours after departure, still in relatively good shape after climbing more than 2,000 vertical feet and making more than 8 lateral miles. It was a great time and the views were wonderful. We bagged two peaks (Ambler and Kephart) and saw the Jump-Off and the Ice Water Springs.

We were really pleased that all of our training hikes at home had paid off. Our boots, packs, clothing and gear performed very well and we could have gone farther if necessary. It was exciting to bag our first peaks and Sissy liked it as well as I did. I think I have a climbing partner now.